Imagine walking on a road shaded by huge trees with rays of warm sunlight filtering through the thick green foliage and the air filled with earthy fragrances. The picture that comes to the mind will be that of the Indira Avenue. Now commonly known as the Jail Road, the older version of this road was less wide and planted with no less than 800 Banyan trees.
The road was named Indira Avenue after Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III’s daughter, princess Indira Raje. Most of the 800 trees of the road were planted during 1900s, after Indira Raje’s birth. Such was the shade of the trees that, many people feared to pass from it due to less daylight !!!!
Indira Raje :
Indira Raje was the only surviving girl child of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III. She had been betrothed to the heir of Gwalior at a young age. During the period of this engagement, she met and fell in love with Jitendra Narayan of Cooch Behar. Subsequently she wrote a letter to her fiance, which resulted into cancelling her marriage to him. Although she ended up marrying Jitendra Narayan, she became estranged to her parents for a long period as they didn’t consider Jitendra Narayan to be a good person.
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Once fully shaded with trees, the road has now been widened to support the ever growing needs of the city, with only 80-100 trees left.
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